Tuesday, March 24, 2009

So, here I stand with my tail between my legs. I've been whining about how useless phone cams are for years. In fact, I've tried unsuccessfully to find a phone that doesn't have a camera that still has what I need a phone to have. Then out of the blue I start using the phone cam on one of my phones. Then I start to use the cam on my other phone. Yes I have 2 cell phones. One is for business and the other is for personal use. They both have cams and the difference in the cams and the pics they produce is significant enough to use them both for different situations. Now, the tail between the legs part . . . I'm having a blast! Taking and posting phone cam pics to my Tumblr blog has become a daily event for me. Sometimes I post dozens of pics a day. And by doing this I have discovered the necessity for having and using a phone cam!

When I first started in the photography world I was brutally hard on myself. Every picture had to be perfect! Everything needed to be centered, it needed to be razor sharp, the coloring had to be dead on, it had to be "interesting", etc. If everything wasn't up to my ridiculous standards the picture got erased. I could just kick myself for all of the fantastic images that went into the oblivion of the recycle bin rather than being shared with the world. After five years and tens of thousands of images under my belt I have realized that just about every picture can be used in some form. Hell, I could have just photoshopped them and made them more interesting! Tee hee!

I'm certainly not saying that I'm going to throw away my dslr in favor of my Motorola Q. However, I am saying that I now see where the phone cam can fit into my world. I hope you enjoy the images!

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

In a past blog I spoke of my distaste for over-photoshopped photos. I explained that changing a human being's skin to fake plastic-looking almost video game quality is just wrong. Of course I meant in a purely photographic way not in a "if you use Photoshop you suck" kind of way. Photoshop is a very useful tool that can transform an ordinary photo into a very striking image.

After I became an ordained minister I wanted one of those striking images for what I was doing at the time. I got dressed in my Sunday best (sorry, I couldn't resist), grabbed a few props, snapped a pick and then set about doctoring it up with Photoshop to create that perfect image! This is what I came up with and it was relatively easy.

The more you do to set your shot up with your gear means that much less photoshopping you have to do. Also, whatever you can't produce with your gear can be taken care of with some simple photoshopping. Using photographic techniques and Photoshop can help you create images that are both cool and easy to produce.

And sometimes you can just explore Photoshop for fun and find that there are some really neat things you can do with just a few mouse clicks!

The point here is that Photoshop isn't evil and I didn't mean to make it sound that way in my previous blog post. On the contrary, Photoshop is a wonderful tool that can help save you countless hours of set up for shots and can help you create wonderful images. I guess my warning is just don't make the model's skin look fake!

About This Blog

I'm not an evil monkey in anyone's closet...I'm not a curious monkey who has escaped from the zoo. I'm a devious monkey, and I have a camera! Welcome to my world! Enter freely and of your own will...oh, and prepare to be photographed!

About Me

I created this blog to document my 30 day journey of taking control of my physical/mental/spiritual being. I'm a former US Navy Deep Sea Diver and back then I was a much more positive and happy person. I've decided to take control of my life and get back to those principles that I once lived by. I'm going to take pictures and video of what I'm doing and how I'm feeling and I welcome you to accompany me on this journey. Please drop me a line and give me your comments and questions. Please watch the opening video for the addendum. Hoo Yah Deep Sea!